62 HUNTING AND FISHING IN FLORIDA. 
viz.: (1) Hunting on horseback and running the deer with hounds ; 
this method to be successful requires a party of hunters and some 
one to direct operations who is thoroughly acquainted with the 
country. (2) To ‘slow trail” them, which is usually the most 
satisfactory way to hunt them. A hound trained to follow a trail 
slowly and without barking is used, and must go slow enough to 
enable the hunter to keep within a few yards of him all the time ; 
sooner or later the deer is ‘‘ jumped,” usually within easy shooting 
distance. The third method is known as still hunting. To bea 
successful ‘* still hunter” requires keen eyesight combined with a 
knowledge of woodcraft and the habits and ways of deer which 
comparatively few white men possess. Indians always hunt deer in 
this manner, but they have been 
trained to it all their lives, and 
always hunt where they know 
there is plenty of game. A single 
deer may often be stalked and shot 
almost in open ground where there 
is only an occasional bush or clump 
of grass for cover. 
By keeping to leeward of the 
animal, and creeping forward while 
it has its head down feeding, and remaining perfectly motionless 
when it lifts its head, one may often approach within easy shooting 
distance. A deer, as a rule, shakes his tail before lifting his head. 
On one occasion I had approached within perhaps 125 yards of a 
buck in an open prairie when the grass was not over twelve or fifteen 
inches high. I was creeping along on my hands and knees, when he 
suddenly raised his head and looked directly at me before I had 
time to lay down in the grass. I remained perfectly still, and after 
gazing steadily at me for a moment he stamped once or twice, 
advanced a few steps and stamped again, but after examining me 
for some time he apparently came to the conclusion that I was part 
of the scenery and not dangerous ; whereupon he commenced to feed 
again. 
